Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 July 2021
343. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Justice further to section 41 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (details supplied), if she is satisfied that the Garda Commissioner has fulfilled their duty in view of the recent issue with the cancellation of more than 22,000 category 1 999 emergency calls; and if she will provide the reports which she received from the Commissioner in respect of same. [35528/21]
Amharc ar fhreagra344. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Justice if there was any additional information relating to the cancellation of category 1 999 emergency calls provided by the Commissioner to her between October 2020 and May 2021. [35529/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 343 and 344 together.
I welcome the apology that was made by the Garda Commissioner last week and the Commissioner has assured me that when someone calls 999 now, they can expect and trust that An Garda Síochána will help. That should of course always be the case.
An Garda Síochána wrote to the Secretary General of my Department on 4 December 2020 to inform the Department that a number of 999 calls had been cancelled on the AGS Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system and that An Garda Síochána was carrying out a review of the reasons behind this. The correspondence did not make explicit reference to section 41 of the Garda Síochána Act but was of course in keeping with the overall requirement of that section to keep the Minister and the Secretary General fully informed of matters of significance. The Commissioner wrote to me with an update on 16 June.
As the Deputy will be aware, the Policing Authority is, at the request of Minister McEntee, overseeing the review being carried by An Garda Síochána in relation to this matter, and there have been a number of engagements between the Authority and An Garda Síochána in this regard. I have also been briefed by both the Commissioner and the Chair of the Authority.
Once the Authority has completed its work, I will examine its conclusions and take any action that needs to be taken on foot of its report.
